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Dunkin' Donuts' glazed donut breakfast sandwich

With a new focus on food and drinks, Dunkin' Donuts may be deviating from its namesake, but donut eaters do not seem to mind. Aided by the release of several food and drink items, Dunkin' Donuts has seen both its ad awareness and purchase consideration rise significantly since the middle of March among consumers who had eaten donuts in the last three months.

Since March, the company has released a series of both new menu items and limited time offers. At the beginning of last month, Dunkin' made two items available at its stores: the Steak and Angus Sandwich, which had been a limited offer before, and a new variation, the "Angus Steak and Egg Wake-Up Wrap". This month, the company added to its permanent lineup two new wraps --Chicken Salad and Tuna Salad--and also has rolled out for Spring and Summer two Iced Coffee flavors in collaboration with ice cream chain Baskin' Robbins: Mint Chocolate Chip and Old Fashioned Butter Pecan. Additionally, Dunkin' has unveiled a donut breakfast sandwich with eggs and bacon in between two halves of a glazed donut. While the donut sandwich has only been released in Eastern Massachusetts, so far, it has gathered plenty of attention online.

While these new additions might not be quite living up to the "donuts" in "Dunkin' Donuts" (except for the donut sandwich, of course), this is exactly the plan. According to an article posted on Food Product Design on March 14, Dunkin' Donuts CFO Paul Carbone announced at an industry conference in March that the company has shifted focus to beverages and breakfast sandwiches. Said Carbone, "We all love Fred the Baker, but we're a beverage company. It's not going to be time to make donuts anymore; beverages are the holy grail of profitability."

This shift away from donuts, however, does not seem to be hurting the chain among those most affected: donut eaters. In recent weeks, Dunkin' has experienced gains in both ad awareness and purchase consideration among those who had consumed a donut in the last three months. On March 22nd Dunkin' Donut's purchase consideration among donut eaters stood at 41%, meaning 41% of regular donut eaters would consider Dunkin' Donuts the next time they were in the market for food. Over the last several weeks, this metric has risen, reaching 54% on April 9th. Similarly ad awareness has risen from 38% on March 22nd to 47% on April 6th, meaning 47% of donut eaters reported seeing an ad for the brand in the last month.